Monthly Archives: December 2016

Linda Zoolalian playing piano (which she also teaches along with voice).

L.A. Opera patrons who rely on supertitles to understand the text of what’s being sung can thank the woman wearing a headset and sitting in a space above the wall chandeliers on the right side of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion auditorium.

Linda Zoolalian has prepared and cued the supertitles—librettos projected in English on a screen above the proscenium and elsewhere—since 2003. Three years ago, she began cueing supertitles for the Los Angeles Master Chorale as well.

Alma Guzman has three great passions in life: volunteering, photography and travel.

Her Opera League volunteerism dates back to the League’s very inception almost thirty years ago. Since her retirement, she has been able to volunteer a whopping 450 plus hours a year. This coming season, she will serve on the Opera League board of directors for the third time. The League, and by extension LA Opera, benefit greatly from Alma’s huge contribution of time, as have over 40 citywide organizations where she has volunteered since 1973.

It’s that time of year again! The time where we all make resolutions to meet new people and travel more. What if this New Year’s, you could do all of that at the opera house? Here are some ways to add seeing opera to your 2017 New Year’s resolutions.

Pick up a new hobby: opera.

Sometimes the day job gets to us and we forget to enjoy ourselves outside of the office. Take a break from Netflix binge-watching (although we also can’t wait for Sherlock) and spend some nights at the opera.

As a nonprofit, everything we do—on stage and throughout the community—is made possible by the generosity of supporters like you, who value the impact the performing arts have on the cultural fabric of Los Angeles.

When you make a tax-deductible donation by this Saturday, December 31, you will be entered for a chance to win:

Two tickets to Anna Netrebko and Yusif Eyvazov in Concert on May 4, 2017

Verismo, Anna Netrebko’s new album, on compact disc

A donation of any amount will help LA Opera and enter you for a chance to win this exciting giveaway. But hurry, this opportunity ends soon!

For the past 11 seasons, LA Opera has been honored to work with the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles to present free, large-scale community performances including Noah’s Flood, Judas Maccabaeus and The Festival Play of Daniel under the baton of James Conlon. These community opera performances include singers, actors and orchestra members from the community, performing alongside professional singers and orchestra members from LA Opera.

This season, LA Opera is reviving its successful production of Noah’s Flood (Noye’s Fludde). Conducted by James Conlon.

Noah’s Flood will be performed at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on Saturday, May 6, 2017 at 4:00pm and 7:30pm.

Here’s a list of things you might not know about our production of Noah’s Flood.

ARIA is the program du jour for young professionals to connect with the arts, network, and make friends with fellow arts enthusiasts. This season, we’ve taken ARIA to the next level by elevating its placement as a young professionals’ program for opera lovers between the ages of 21 and 40, is switching to a club membership-based model. As a result, ARIA has never been bigger, with over 100 members mingling and mixing at various events and enjoying opera together. 2017 promises to be the best yet. 2017 promises to be the best yet.

A scene from James Robinson’s “Orient Express” production of The Abduction from the Seraglio; Photo: George Hixson / Houston Grand Opera

Ever since last season’s production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, we’ve been eagerly waiting to stage another one of Mozart’s work at LA Opera. Next month, we get to do just that! Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio opens on January 28 and here are five reasons to see this riotous opera.

Did we mention that it’s Mozart?

Mozart’s effervescent score is sure to thrill audiences—even though Emperor Joseph II asked that Mozart cut a few notes from the piece when it was first presented to him. (Check out that moment and the finale of Abduction as depicted in the Miloš Forman biopic Amadeus below.)

Joshua Winograde, the company’s senior director of artistic planning, has been living out his dream at LA Opera. For the past decade, he has developed the company’s celebrated Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program and played an instrumental role in championing the company’s artistic vision. It has been an incredible journey for Winograde, whose long history with LA Opera began when he fell in love with opera as a teenager.

As a teenager, Winograde took summer classes at UCLA. There he met an exchange student from Japan who introduced him to Kathleen Battle’s recordings. “I had never heard anything like her. I was totally unaware that a human voice was capable of doing anything like that,” recalls Winograde. After hearing Battle’s voice, he became even more interested in singing and performing. He joined choirs and took advantage of every opportunity to see productions at LA Opera.

“Tara Colburn, one of the founders of LA Opera, was the mother of a friend of mine in high school. My friend didn’t like to go to the opera, so I was his mom’s date,” Winograde jokes.

After growing up at the LA Opera, Winograde pursued a career as a singer. He received both undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Julliard School and embarked on a professional career as a bass-baritone (including time as a young artist at Houston Grand Opera). However, as Winograde’s career took off, he started dreaming of a different career path.

“I couldn’t shake this peripheral vision of a career producing opera,” says Winograde.

Winograde followed his heart and switched to a career in management, working with young artists at Wolf Trap Opera Company and Julliard. One year later, LA Opera came knocking.

This is a wonderful time to experience the arts in Los Angeles. The arts scene is burgeoning like never before and all roads lead to Grand Avenue—home to several arts organizations, including LA Opera. With many arts destinations within walking distance of each other, Angelenos have never had simpler access to such a cross-section of art. From classical to contemporary, symphony to jazz, and of course grand opera, there’s something for every art palette.

Thanks to Metro, traveling to Grand Avenue will only get easier.

In just a few years, Metro will open a new station at the corner of Hope and Second streets. This is an incredible gift to the community and will increase accessibility to the city’s ever-evolving arts culture in downtown Los Angeles.

Metro is looking to name this station and is asking for public input for its naming and the naming of others in the Regional Connector line. As supporters of our art, you likely frequent our house and we’d like to ask for your help.

Stuart and Rebecca Bowne have subscribed to LA Opera since 1995. “While we both absolutely love opera, our experience and relationships with this particular company have enriched our lives in ways we could not have imagined,” said Mrs. Bowne.

“We travel around the world to see opera – but it is here, in our home town, that we experience the most meaningful moments and heartfelt connections.”

Tenor Joshua Guerrero speaks to high school students about his role in Macbeth (2016)

Currently in its second year, LA Opera’s Cast to Class program brings opera singers into schools and students to the opera house. Opera singers travel to schools around Los Angeles County speaking to students about their craft, and then those same students attend a mainstage performance at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and see the singer in action. The goal of the program—as with all of our education and community initiatives—is to break down the barriers between opera and the community.

However, in the past two years other, somewhat unexpected and beautiful results, has emerged.

During a dinner break between rehearsals of L.A. Opera’s Romeo and Juliet in 2005—in a rehearsal room at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion because the cast was in wigs and makeup and not allowed to venture outside—star soprano Anna Netrebko asked Opera Chorus tenor George Sterne to join her. “When she invited me to sit next to her, that thrilled me,” Sterne says with a grin. “I think she’d kind of gotten to like me, from talking to me.”

Have you ever wondered – “How’d they do that?” Opera brings stories to life, and the magic you see on stage is often the result of incredible ingenuity on the part of our behind-the-scenes artisans. We’ve rounded up a few of our favorite objects used in productions—old and new, both onstage and off—to give you a glimpse at what’s involved in staging the operas you love.

Can you guess what these objects are for? (The answers are below, but no cheating!)

The torches we use onstage have a name that references a crucial safety feature. What are these props called?

This month, Grant Gershon is doing something no other person has ever done. He is conducting performances at three of the city’s most celebrated music organizations – LA Opera (Wonderful Town), LA Philharmonic (John Adams’ El Niño), and the LA Master Chorale (Festival of Carols and Handel’s Messiah) – all in one month. This is an exciting time for the renowned conductor and Artistic Director of the Master Chorale, who has a lifelong relationship with the Music Center (including LA Opera).

Gershon is a Californian through and through, hailing from the city of Alhambra, and educated at Chapman University and at the University of Southern California. He first pursued a career as a pianist and was suspicious of conductors with the anti-authoritarian spirit of a teenager growing up in the 1970s. Twenty years later, Gershon found himself at the Music Center, working as an assistant conductor and principal pianist at LA Opera. It was here that Gershon discovered a passion for conducting.